Did You Know? Sustainable Weston Action Group News and Views
It’s hard to believe but Sustainable Weston Action Group has just turned four. Yes, this hard-working group with its awesome acronym of SWAG has been helping educate and engage residents on local sustainability issues for quite some time, and with quite some great results. For example, because of SWAG, Weston has a Town Sustainability Committee. This Committee, formed in the fall of 2018, ensures sustainability issues and opportunities in Weston are proactively addressed and managed. We are, as a town, “doing better.”
Sadly, our most fantastic Sustainability Coordinator has moved on from Weston to Worcester (maybe it was an alphabetical choice?) sometime this summer. Why did no one tell the Owl that Kortni Wroten had left the building? That’s a bit of a loss, Weston, as she was getting much done. Hope we can find another superhero for that role (update 10:45 am. The Owl has been informed that we DO have a new superhero starting Monday, October 24–stay tuned for that introduction). By the way, no one told me Steve Fogg, town engineer, was leaving as well. Folks, help me out here. Otherwise I will be forced to make stuff up as usual.
Anyway, enough berating, let’s move on to SWAG’s successes, as noted on their website:
To date, SWAG has:
- Campaigned to increase awareness of Weston’s gas leaks through an independent audit
- Organized five annual Town-Wide Clean Ups
- Worked with the Sustainability Committee to bring Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) to Weston
- Helped establish the WPPA to address pollinator and habitat concerns
- Supported Town efforts to encourage residents to compost and reduce waste
- Provided input to Weston’s Climate Action Toolkit for Homeowners and Climate Action and Resilience Plan
- Engaged and educated residents by publishing articles and hosting presentations, films and other public events
- Collaborated with Town officials, departments, schools and other organizations on sustainability issues
And they have a super-fine newsletter you can subscribe to here. They scooped me on the Pumpkin Smash, which is a favorite event including porkers and pumpkins–now sponsored by the WCCA, SWAG and Mothers Out Front. Makes me want to get more pumpkins just so I can smash them.
The latest SWAG newsletter can be found here, and there is much more to learn — re-greening Sunset Corner, a pilot composting program at the schools, and other goodies. Thanks for all the hard work, SWAG, it is much appreciated!
Noone knows anything anymore because we no longer have a Town Crier. In the real old days there was a real Town Crier shouting the news of the day as he marched around town. People were hip to what was happening.
In the 60’s and 70’s of blessed memory, we had the Real Paper, sold on the streets of Boston and Cambridge, a rag we all just had to read, it was so good. That got gobbled up by the Boston Phoenix which was not as fabulous, but still gave good coverage of the local news and the art and music scene. It’s been gone about 10 years now.
At the same time in Weston we had a real good Weston Town Crier, with many fine editors and great local coverage. That became part of the Gannett Corp. along with many other local papers, and then was dropped, leaving us all disconnected and in the dark.
The damage to our community and to our democracy is immense. What good is our right to a free press, when we have no press at all in town?
My idea is that we start our own local paper, in a group effort involving residents and students (in both our public and private high schools) interested in journalism. I think it could be done relatively inexpensively, with an online edition and also a slim weekly paper edition, available for free at local stores and at the library, schools and other public buildings.
If interested in helping to make this happen, please contact me at isabellajancourtz@yahoo.com or at 781 891-6198. It would be wonderful to have an open meeting soon for all who support this idea and learn from each other what might be possible.